For almost four years it has been on a continually evolving journey from takeaway to food service and slowly adding to their warren of cosy corners for seating. 

With their most recent expansion and the addition of a communal table and larger kitchen area, owners Tim and Archana are confident that the evolution has ended. 

“For us, Sweetbrew is a labour of love it is not just a shop; we never set out to have just a shop,” Archana said. 

“When we first started we said we would only be a takeaway shop because we wanted to start a coffee shop that was going to have specialty coffee done in a way Launceston had never experienced before. 

“We decided on two principles and have stuck to them from day one, great pastry, and great coffee and the two needed to complement each other. 

“We set ourselves a target of selling 45 coffees a day, on day one we hit our goal and then we realised that this might work. 

“It has been a journey of listening to our customers, first they wanted somewhere to sit outside, so we provided it, next it was seating inside and maybe some more food options, and so we provided that. 

“Physically I think it is the end, the business has grown  physically to the size we would like it to and from here on we need to ensure we continue to provide what we started with which is great coffee and a place that people feel comfortable and happy.”

For Archana and Tim Sweetbrew has been a journey and passion, but one which they have worked on together as a team.

“It proves that if you choose to have a dream, it is important to see it through because you are going to have a lot of naysayers along the way, it is easy to lose confidence in what you set out to do,” Archana said.

“Tim and I are very fortunate as we are an excellent team and we’ve worked together side by side pretty much every day for the last 17 years, and he is my favourite and best colleague 

“We are very fortunate, and I love working alongside him, and I know he feels the same way.”

The couple moved back to Tasmania in 2000 after meeting in Melbourne, Tim is a native of Tasmania and Archana was born in Ethiopia to Indian and Ethiopian parentage. 

While Tim moved to Melbourne at age 19,  in search of work and a more worldly experience like many young Tasmanians, Archana’s journey to Melbourne started when she was just seven. 

“Since I was seven I always wanted to come to Australia, my father was a very strict man, and at times I found that very frustrating,” Archana said.

“I would hide out in the toilet where there was a world map and say to myself I want to run away to the furthest point on earth and to me, it was Australia that I loved the idea of.

“ I lived in Ethiopia till I was 15 and in 1993 civil war broke out.

“We spent a week in hiding, I spent many days under a bed while there was a clash, there was no bloodshed that year, although it was a very scary time. 

“My father then decided that we should leave Ethiopia, everyone had been evacuated, and we were the last of very few families that had stayed behind.

“Then my father got a contract to teach in Italy, my mother and sister stayed in Ethiopia to pack up the house, and I went to a boarding school in the Himalayas, so we were spread across three different continents.”

Knowing that she still wanted to move to Australia, Archana began to secretly apply for Universities and Colleges, even though her father didn't support the idea. 

“In India, people don’t have part-time jobs to save a little extra money, and so I had no money to fund my move,” Archana said.

“My father wasn’t supportive of me leaving Indian and wanted me to become a doctor or a lawyer and while my grades were good I felt the pressure and didn’t think I would fit. 

“I stayed in the Indian Himalayas for three years doing University my correspondence.

“I had two great friends who knew of my dream and my financial inability to make it happen and one day she said to me, you still want to go to Australia? I said yes, and she gave me a ticket, the other said here is your course money to become an entrepreneur. 

“I told my dad two weeks before I left, all I could manage to get in my pocket before I left was $100, I knew I had friends in Australia who could help and let me stay, but I was also conscious of not overstaying my welcome and contributing for food.”

Archana admitted that while it was her dream, it was hard work. Living off two dollar Mcdonald deals she jokes that she has since never eaten a McDonalds again. 

But her journey to Australia has become her and Tim’s journey and their life together in Launceston with their two children. 

“the mural in the cafe is a personification of who my mother was in my life and my Ethiopian culture and why I do what I do,” Archana said.

“And part of that is my love for my mother, my love of Ethiopia and the traditions that brings with it including coffee, Tim has also been back to Ethiopia a number of times, so it is no longer my journey it is our journey and our vision.

I say in part because I still have a home and family in Ethiopia, I still have a home in India, and those are places that have created my thought processes, my journey and the base of who I am and have allowed my children and husband to experience that.

“People ask which one do you prefer, and there is no such thing as which one, each one has their own elements of home and why they are important, and for now Launceston has an appeal because it is also home, we have created a home here.”

While they never set out to exclusively open a coffee cafe, Tim and Archana knew that whatever business path life took them on it would be one of creating relationships with people. 

“We both believe in the principle of being able to engage and create relationships

"We both knew whatever we ended up doing it was about engaging with people and sharing whatever passion it was, whether it's about coffee or politics, it is about bringing people together in a space that we have created together,” Archana said. 

Sweetbrew is located at 93 George Street, Launceston.